Before Liam was born, the husband and I made a pact – to always prioritise each other over our children. I suppose some people may find this weird or even unacceptable. How could your spouse come before your children?

We’ve likened it to an emergency situation on an airplane. Despite parental intuition to first help a child put on the oxygen mask, the instruction is that one must put on the oxygen mask first BEFORE helping to put it on a child. The reason is simple really; a conscious adult is more capable of taking care of a child than the conscious child alone.

Basically, we are each other’s oxygen mask. If we don’t help each other first, we won’t be able to help our children. If we neglected each other’s needs, our child’s needs will not be fully fulfilled. We have to first keep each other happy in order to keep our kids happy.

Make sense?

So, despite a sneaky intention to forgo any celebration of our 2nd wedding anniversary due to still being rather overwhelmed by the demands of our infant son, I say NO to this nonsense. NO to not celebrating because you do it once, you do it always.

I am his oxygen mask and he is mine and together we’re going to make today as special as possible.

Gareth, I love you so much. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband to me.

Thank you for being my rock, especially this year when Liam arrived too early and had to be admitted to NICU. While I only had to care about Liam, you had to care about me, Liam, work AND also the mountain of medical bills. Not once you faltered under stress.

Thank you for being a positive anchor in my life, for always reminding me that there’s no other way of living other than to constantly improve as a person. My speed is slow but you remain patient and ever willing to nudge me further. You are my inspiration, my life mentor.

Because of you, I have the confidence to be a good mother to Liam and his future siblings. And thank you for being so smart. Actually I have to thank my mom-in-law, Susan for that hehe. Thanks Mom!